Tuesdays with Corti: Making Headlines

Good morning, folks! And what a good morning it is! I open up my email of Aurora’s own “Beacon-News Headlines for Tuesday, March 4, 2014” and POW!:

“PARAMOUNT SELLS MORE THAN 1,000 SUBSCRIPTIONS ALREADY FOR NEW SERIES”

Ya think someone would have told me! Yesterday, while we are working away at RENT rehearsing for our first run-through, the box office at the theater is slammed with renewals and pre-sales for Season #4! The response to the announcement of our new season of shows and their extended run to meet the demand is being met with more enthusiasm that I ever could have imagined. We are growing, ladies and gentlemen, and moving forward! At Friday’s press conference, I ducked out of rehearsal to reveal the titles, greet and thank everyone there for their support and how they, and you, are the reason we are continuing to serve our audience the finest production of Broadway musical theatre that you will ever see anywhere. And this morning, I extend my gratitude to those thousand plus theatre goers who jammed the phone lines yesterday (and to those who will join them in the weeks to come) on soon becoming one of the largest live theatre loving audiences in the country. Without your partnership and attendance in developing Paramount’s Broadway Series, it just wouldn’t be happening. It’s as simple as that.

So let me tell ya about rehearsal yesterday…after a week and a half of detailed and challenging staging, music and choreography and then over the last few days going back and working through the show taking it apart and putting it back together from top to finish, we had our first run-through after lunch and, my friends, the performance level knocked me out the only way the commitment of emotional integrity and technical brilliance can manifest. This cast brings new meaning to “going for it” and “giving it everything you’ve got.” Jonathan Larson’s words and music have a renewed beauty and eloquence with this cast which I believe will revive any fan’s ardor for this piece and find many for the first time discovering it as a powerful and original work of musical theatre. It’s extraordinary how one can feel the room fill with energy and excitement when the actors stand in that moment of recognition, realization and discovery and is giving so completely from the bottom of their soul. It is electric and fierce and everyone is still and stunned as they watch a level reached, a height newly gained propelling everyone forward in the telling of this story.